Around a month and a half after the fatal night-time collision between the Vestas 11th Hour Racing team's racing yacht and a Chinese fishing boat, in which a fisherman was killed, the blue boat is back in the water. With a new bow section and freshly painted, the yacht passed its first small tests on the way from the shipyard to the Viaduct harbour in Auckland. Detailed sailing tests are planned from Wednesday.
The blue boat of the Vestas 11th Hour Racing team is back in the water after extensive repairs. Initial cautious tests have been promising. Further sailing tests are planned from 7 March when the rig is in place
Skipper Charlie Enright, who was not on board during the collision off Hong Kong because he had skipped a leg for family reasons, said in New Zealand: "Everyone involved has worked incredibly hard to get the boat back in the water as quickly as possible. We said a month ago that we wanted to get back on the water that day. And we kept to the schedule. That's incredible!"
At the same time, Enright said that the team still had some work to do before the upcoming Auckland Harbour Race on 10 March and the start of the seventh leg on 18 March: "We have to get the boat out of the water again, set up the rig and complete some tests. We will be sailing from 7 March - which gives us enough time until the harbour race and the start of the leg on 18 March. So we think we're well prepared."
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
